Londoners gathered at the North London Optimist Community Centre to offer their input on compensation for councillors.
The Council Compensation Review Task Force held an open house on Saturday to provide citizens with information on the responsibilities of councillors, the city’s operating budget in 2014 as well as the compensation rates of other municipalities with similar population sizes and budgets.
The cities surveyed by the CCRTF include:
- Windsor
- Ottawa
- Mississauga
- Brampton
- Vaughan
- Hamilton
- Markham
- Kitchener
- Halifax
- Winnipeg
- Vancouver
- Surrey
- Richmond
- Saskatoon
- St. John’s
- Regina
According to the research, the Forest City came in last for compensation and ninth for population among the other cities.
“What we want to do is develop a greater understanding of what the life and job of a councillor is,” Dan Ross, chairman for the CCRTF, said.
The CCRTF provided attendees with a survey regarding the importance of how many hours councillors should work, their accountability to their constituents, holding compensation reviews periodically and continuing to look into the compensation for councillors in other municipalities.
Approximately 10 citizens filled out the survey and spoke with city officials.
“Anything we can do to improve corporate governance and getting people involved in corporate governance is a good thing,” Ross said. “That’s the only way we get good input to make good decisions and the only way council can make good decisions.”
Ross says the roles of councillors, who earn a salary of $36,262 and work approximately 20 to 60 hours a week, can be broken down into thirds.
- Communicating with constituents
- Attending council, committee, board and commission meetings
- Other: research, planning, community events, mentoring, advocacy, education, specials projects, and assignments
Londoners will be able to fill out the survey online until 9 a.m on April 3. The survey can be accessed at getinvolved.london.ca.
The CCRTF will enter deliberations on the information gathered in April before presenting the final report to council by May.
Comments